The shift from working at home to working in factories in the early 18th century brought with it a new system of working. Factory and mine owners sought to control and discipline their workforce through a system of long working hours, fines and low wages.
Working conditions in factories
- Long working hours: normal shifts were usually 12-14 hours a day, with extra time required during busy periods. Workers were often required to clean their machines during their mealtimes.
- Low wages: a typical wage for male workers was about 15 shillings (75p) a week, but women and children were paid much less, with women earning seven shillings (35p) and children three shillings (15p). For this reason, employers preferred to employ women and children. Many men were sacked when they reached adulthood; then they had to be supported by their wives and children.
- Cruel discipline: there was frequent
"strapping"
(hitting with a leather strap). Other punishments included hanging iron weights around children's necks, hanging them from the roof in baskets, nailing children's ears to the table, and dowsing them in water butts to keep them awake. - Fierce systems of fines: these were imposed for talking or whistling, leaving the room without permission, or having a little dirt on a machine. It was claimed that employers altered the time on the clocks to make their workers late so that they could fine them. Some employers demanded that their overseers raise a minimum amount each week from fines.
- Accidents: forcing children to crawl into dangerous, unguarded machinery led to many accidents. Up to 40 per cent of accident cases at Manchester Infirmary in 1833 were factory accidents.
- Health: cotton thread had to be spun in damp, warm conditions. Going straight out into the cold night air led to many cases of pneumonia. The air was full of dust, which led to chest and lung diseases and loud noise made by machines damaged workers' hearing.
- Parish apprentices: orphans from workhouses in southern England were
"apprenticed"
to factory owners, supposedly to learn the textiles trade. They worked 12-hour shifts, and slept in barracks attached to the factory in beds just vacated by children about to start the next shift. Working conditions in mines
- Trappers as young as four years old sat all day in the dark, opening the doors for the coal trucks to pass through.
- Young putters pushed tubs and children as young as six carried coal for the hewers. Women hurriers pulled tubs with a chain that went around their middles and between their legs.
- Hewers cut the coal with pickaxes in seams only 18 inches high.
- Wages were so low that there were stories of pregnant women giving birth down the pit one day and being back at work the next.
- There were stories of brutal discipline measures. Miners were paid by the tub and if their tub was underweight, they were not paid. There were fierce fines, and some miners ended a week's work owing the money to the mine owner.
- Accidents such as roof falls, explosions, shaft accidents and drowning were frequent.
- If a man joined a trade union, he was not only sacked but also blacklisted by all the mine owners in the area so he became unemployable. Many employees were required to sign
"the Document"
promising they would not join a union. - In some mines, especially in Scotland, a miner had to sign
"the Bond"
before he was given a job, in which he promised not to leave for another job.
